Gaming Streamers as Influencers and Intermediaries: Differentializing the Micro, Meso and Macro Contexts of Streaming

This paper, presented at DiGRA 2025, examines gaming streamers as hybrid actors who function simultaneously as entertainers, informers, and advertisers within the video game sector. It argues that existing research on game streaming has been largely descriptive, focusing on audience relationships or off-camera practices, and has been concentrated on Twitch, leaving cross-platform practices of professional and hobbyist creators understudied. The authors propose a theoretical framework grounded in communicative figuration theory that distinguishes four analytical dimensions shaping streamers' social impact: self (personal values, upbringing with games, and role perception), community (audiences and professional networks such as agencies), industry (the video games sector, which shapes both the games produced and who gains access), and platformization (platforms like Twitch and YouTube as distribution channels and community infrastructures).

The paper supports its framing with contextual figures drawn from a secondary source. It reports that around 18 million Germans watch video game streams on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, and that 54 percent of German stream viewers use streams as a source for purchasing decisions, according to YouGov data. The authors also note the worldwide influence of streamers on game success, citing prior research, and point to the 2024 German Computer Game Awards recognizing a former gaming journalist for his work as a streamer as an indication of the blurring of professional roles.

The document is primarily a conceptual and programmatic contribution rather than an empirical study. It does not present original survey or fieldwork results, and its data points are drawn from external sources. Its stated aim is to encourage new research into the interplay between personal motivation, audience feedback, industrial incentives, and platform logics, and to explore parallels between gaming streamers and political influencers as digital intermediaries.